Sonic and the Aura Guardians
by dillpickle16
Summary: When two mysterious beings from another world land on Mobius, how will the heroes react? Join Sonic and friends as they discover what it truly means to be an Aura Guardian!
1. The Arrival

**Author's Note** : Hey there! Dillpickle16 here, and welcome to this fanfiction! I plan on this being a pretty long series, as it will have an ongoing plot line, along with a few side arcs as well (sort of like a TV show). This series will also only include characters from the main series games, so no Sally or Sonia. Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show! Rated Fiction T for mildly dark themes (and some language).

* * *

A soft pinging came from the green hologram map of the galaxy, the only thing that lit the room at that moment. A green dot flickered on a planet labelled 'Mobius'. Two silhouettes observed the map in silence.

"Do you think...it's there?" a female voice said.

"There's only one way to find out," another voice responded, this one a male.

The male voice's figure reached out to the control panel underneath the hologram and pressed a few buttons. The map zoomed in on the planet and brought up its coordinates. The girl nodded, walked around the map, and headed toward a window filled with the small lights of the stars. The boy soon followed. They both found their seats and began typing on a dimly lit console.

"Start the main engine," the girl said.

The spaceship's engine purred as it flickered back to life. The duo were now visible as the lights of the bridge came back online. Both of them were human(oid), but very different in appearance. The boy wore a brilliant blue jumpsuit with the letters "AG" shown proudly on his chest, along with matching gloves that went up to the middle of his forearms and an eye mask. His dirty-blonde hair stuck up on one side of his head and his happy, stunning eyes were the same color as his outfit. The girl, on the other hand, wore a sleek, black, battle-ready jumpsuit with the same letters higher set on her chest: "AG". She had long brown hair that covered her back and fell over her front in waves. Her steady brown eyes were calm, yet mysterious.

"Engine is online," he said.

"Prepare to warp."

"Are we going to have enough power to get there, Sarah?"

She smirked.

"I guess there's only one way to find out, Tristan. Hit it."

He smiled back confidently and pushed a large, obvious lever forward. The ship shuttered and glowed before blasting-off, leaving light blue energy particles in its wake.

XXX

The forest was silent. The trees stood still, the bushes stayed unrustled, and the animals kept to their nests. Not even the wind dared to disturb this peaceful moment. Until the blur went by. The blue blur, that is.

There he was, Sonic the Hedgehog, standing loud and proud on a cliff over a large, green valley. He stretched out his arms and let the breeze blow through his quills. He took a deep breath of cool, crisp air and smiled. This was his world. He was just about to jump to down to the trees below when-

BOOM!

He was interrupted by a reverberating noise that emanated from the sky, as if something had hit the atmosphere. No sooner did this happen, then a giant fireball crash into the opposite side of the valley from where Sonic stood, who was, needless to say, a bit shell-shocked. After shaking off the initial confusion, he continued with jumping off the cliff, running to investigate the flaming wreckage.

XXX

"We leave warp space in 3...2...1..."

The spaceship appeared seemingly out of thin air as it arrived at the planet Mobius. The view of the glowing blue and green world entranced both of the young star travelers.

"It's beautiful," Sarah whispered.

"Sure is," Tristan replied.

As much as she would like to admire the breath-taking view, Sarah knew they had come here with a job to do.

"We need to land on the planet, before we run out of fuel," she said, straightening up to attention, "Are there any weapons in our way? We don't want a repeat of last time."

"Ugh. Don't remind me," Tristan replied, rolling his eyes and sliding his chair to a different side of the control console, "Let's see here...huh. Well, there's...something."

"What do you mean, 'something'? Bring it up on the monitor."

Tristan brought up a screen of a strange half-dome shaped object orbiting around the planet.

"What is THAT?" Sarah exclaimed, "I've seen smaller moons!"

"It's some sort of weapon, but there's no power source. It also seems to be pointed at...the planet?"

"At the planet? Well, that's...odd. No matter, it shouldn't interfere with our mission. I'll begin our descent," she said, shooing Tristan out of his seat.

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"Make some disguises. I was looking into Mobian culture and lifestyle on the way here, but the dominant race looks nothing like us. I saved all of my research on the computer," she said, pointing to the hologram of the galaxy map while still typing on the console, "We don't want to go through that again, too."

"Yeah, first they shoot us with lasers, and then they come at us with pitchforks for being 'strange' and 'demonic'. Not my fault I get aggressive after being prodded for weapons by some overly friendly guards," he mumbled to himself as he walked toward the map.

He pressed a few buttons on the panel and brought up a picture of a brightly colored Mobian.

"Whoa," he whispered, not expecting a creature so...colorful. Or furry.

"Hm? Oh yeah, I guess I should've warned you about that. Mobians are anthropomorphic animals, you know, talk, walk on two legs, that kind of thing."

"I thought you needed a disguise, not a shapeshifter!"

"Yeah, but you can do that too, right?"

"Yeah..."

Tristan jumped up and somersaulted in the air a few times as he was surrounded by a blue energy. He landed squarely on his feet and showed off his new form. In a way, he had not changed much. He still wore his blue battlesuit and mask, and his hairstyle and eye color stayed the same. However, his fur was the same color as his hair, his muzzle was a light tan, and he was considerably shorter. He had a long, black nose and two pointy ears poking out from his hair. He posed for a little bit.

"So? What do you think?"

"Looks pretty good!" replied Sarah, who had watched the whole transformation unfold, "You're going to have to change me, though. I can't do that anymore."

"But you will be soon," Tristan reassured her, "Now stand up. Nice and tall."

Sarah put the already descending spacecraft on auto-pilot and stood up to face him. Tristan put out his hands but hesitated.

"Are you sure you want me to do this? It says that there are humanoids on the planet."

"Yes, but it sounds like they've had problems in the past and I really don't want to get separated. Not when we first land."

"Alright, if that's what you think is best."

Tristan put his hands back up and summoned the same blue energy to surround her. After a few seconds, the energy left, leaving Sarah in her new state. Her transformation was much like his own: she still kept her clothes and style, but was now smaller and furrier. However, Tristan immediately saw something wrong. Sarah was swaying a bit, as if she was on a sailboat in the middle of a storm, and despite her new fur, she somehow looked pale.

"Sarah?"

Sarah stumbled backwards and Tristan jumped out to catch her.

"Sarah!"

He didn't quite get there in time as Sarah fell back onto the controls. The ship lurched forward toward the planet at full speed, and Tristan tripped to the front of the craft. He scrambled up to his feet and sprang into action. He swept an unmoving Sarah off the floor and sat her awkwardly on one of the chairs. He slid into the adjacent seat and pulled the steering wheel up. He could feel the controls (and the entire bridge) heat up and saw the view outside cloud up as they rapidly approached the atmosphere. An explosion on his left made Tristan flinch, and after testing the controls, found that it was completely unresponsive. A strong jolt shook the entire ship, and Tristan realized he only had a few seconds before they hit the ground. In the blink of an eye, he grabbed Sarah, and let two appendages shoot out from his back and encircle them in a blue capsule as they impacted the planet with devastating force.

XXX

Sonic was almost at the site of the downed spacecraft when he heard a rustling in the bushes in front of him. He stopped in his tracks as he saw two figures emerge from the shadows of the trees. Well, one figure who was carrying another unconscious one. Sonic noted immediately that both the boy and the girl were covered in ashes.

 _They must have been part of the fire!_ he thought.

Assuming that today was probably not their day, Sonic decided to take a friendly approach to ask if they were okay.

"Hi!" Sonic said cheerfully, taking a step forward.

Tristan tensed up and growled a bit at the action, making Sonic jump a little.

"Who are you?!" an angry and confused Tristan yelled.

"H-hey, it's okay-" Sonic said calmly, taking another step forward.

"STAY BACK!"

Tristan opened his two appendages again, but this time, he showed off what they truly were: wings. Large, blue wings that stretched the width of the clearing they stood in.

"Whoa..."

Sonic, for the second time today, was stunned. After the odd mixture of fear and awe wore off, he tried yet again to reason with Tristan.

"It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you," Sonic said, this time staying in place. "Your friend," he said, pointing at Sarah, "She looks like she needs help. I have a friend-he can help her, but you've got to trust me."

Tristan's wings had slowly relaxed during Sonic's last sentence. In truth, Tristan wasn't sure what was wrong with Sarah, but he highly doubted that Mobians knew anything about his homeworld illnesses. But, he supposed any help was worth it if it could help her.

"Fine. I trust you," Tristan said unconvincingly, "Lead the way."

"Alright, try to keep up!" Sonic taunted jokingly, getting ready to speed off.

Tristan took off into the air with a flap of his wings and watched Sonic take a headstart. Tristan trailed him.

"So," Sonic yelled when Tristan was in earshot, "I don't think I caught your names!"

"My name is Tristan! And this," he shifted her in his arms a little, "is Sarah! What's your name?"

"I'm Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog!"

XXX

"Tails! TAAAAIIIILLLSSS!" Sonic screamed as they approached his friend's house.

Tails ran out just in time to see Sonic come to a screeching halt and Tristan fly down from the sky.

"What's the matt-" Tails looked at Tristan as his wings folded and melted back into his suit. "Um. Who's this?"

"This is Tristan, and that is Sarah. She needs help. Medical help. Do you think you can handle it?"

Tails looked uneasy. He had a tool belt on, and based on the multiple shattered and broken windows, it was pretty obvious why he was a bit on edge.

"I...guess. Bring her in, let me see what I can do."

Tails ushered the trio in and led them to a bedroom.

"Lie her down," he instructed.

Tristan knelt down and gently placed her on the bed.

"I'll go get a first aid kit." Tails hurried out of the room.

"C'mon," Sonic said, waving Tristan to follow him, "We need to talk."

"No, I'm not leaving Sarah alone. Whatever you have to say, you can say it here."

"Alright, fine. You two were very close to whatever crashed. Did you see what it was?"

"It was a spacecraft, and we were in it."

"So you guys are aliens?"

"If that's the word you want to use."

"Huh."

A brief pause silenced the room.

"Why did you come here?" Sonic asked, his voice brimming with pure curiosity.

Tristan straightened up.

"We have passed a thousand stars to find something very, very important."

 _ **To be continued…**_


	2. The Mission

Tristan opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Tails, who came in with a first aid kit.

"Okay, I'm back!" Tails said, opening the kit and taking out a few tools, "Also, Sonic? I, um, called for some help."

"That's alright! You don't have to sound so worried. Who'd you call?"

Sonic's question was immediately answered by pounding at the door and a high-pitched voice screaming his and Tails's name. The color from his face drained a bit.

"O-oh."

"I'll—I'll go get the door," Tails said, leaving an anxious Sonic and confused Tristan alone in the room once again. Sonic peeked out of the room and watched Tails open the door to face the familiar pink hedgehog.

"Hi, Amy. I, uh, didn't expect you here so soon."

"Hi Tails! I was already on my way when you called. When I heard that big 'boom', I came over here to make sure you and—Sonic!" she yelled, as she spotted him down the hall.

He gasped, and turned back into the room and tried to find an escape route, but didn't get to one in time as Amy clobbered him from behind. Tails ran back in time to watch Amy attempt to suffocate Sonic, as he went from red to the color of his quills. Sonic made a variety of exaggerated faces at Tails, which all conveyed the same message: HELP. ME. Tristan snorted quietly as Sonic began turning purple. He had had his fair share of overly-attached girlfriends, but he had never had one this…clingy. Amy had been whining and crying to Sonic throughout the whole ordeal.

"Oh, Sonic! I got so scared when I heard that huge sound! I came right over to see you, and then I got Tails's call, and…" She spotted Tristan, who had been awkwardly standing in the middle of the room watching the situation unfold.

"Who's this?" she said, suddenly becoming aware of the situation. "And," she pointed at Sarah on the bed, "who's that?"

"My name is Tristan, and this is Sarah. I'm sorry if our…entrance frightened you."

"What do you mean, 'entrance'?"

"The noise you heard was our spaceship hitting the atmosphere. We were planning on a much safer landing, but, something happened…" he looked over at Sarah worriedly.

"Spaceship? What spaceship?" Tails asked.

"Right. As I was just about to tell Sonic, we are from a far off planet called Ciellus. We have come here to search for Sarah's lost power cell."

"What's a 'power cell'?" Amy questioned curiously.

"I'll show you."

Tristan put out his hand, the sudden movement making the trio jump back. A white stream, originating from the insignia on his chest, ran down to his arm and crawled up to the middle of his palm. A light appeared above his hand and an odd crystal-like object formed. It was jagged, and had a strange, cylindrical shape that came to a point on both ends. As the white light faded, the three Mobians looked in awe at the blue brilliance of the power cell floating above his hand.

"This is a power cell. On my planet, it is the equivalent to what you call a 'heart', and just like it pumps blood through your veins, it pumps energy through ours. But…"

Tristan paused as he brought up his other hand and put it right underneath his power cell. He held it there for a few seconds before moving it away, and another white line ran down his other arm. In that hand, there appeared to be a couple of fragments of a material similar to his cell.

"This is Sarah's power cell. Or at least, what's left of it. As you can see, her power cell was shattered, and we have been searching the cosmos to try and find the rest of it. Our tracker indicated homeworld energies on this planet, but it has lead us astray before."

"But, if her 'heart' is destroyed like you said, then how is she even alive?" Tails asked while Tristan absorbed the power cells and let the white lines retract into his chest.

"I was nearby when," Tristan paused for a brief second, as if to rethink what he was about to say, quickly catching Sonic's attention, "when her cell shattered. I was able to transfer some of my energy to her, so energy still passes through her, keeping her alive. It works a bit like what you call an 'artificial pacemaker', but not exactly. But it won't work forever. Eventually, her body will get sick of my energy because it isn't her own. And she will die…. But I suppose sharing energy isn't all bad. She gets to use some of my powers. Well, I have to initiate the act, but I think it's pretty cool. That's why we look like this. In reality, we look very similar to what you call Overlanders, but I was able to transform us. I can also sense how Sarah's doing, whether she's weak or strong…." Tristan trailed off, looking concernedly at Sarah while gently running his fingers over the two letters on his chest.

Sonic spoke up, "How did Sarah's power cell break?"

Tristan quickly snapped back to attention, turning pale as he slowly turned his head towards Sonic.

"What?"

"How did her power cell break?"

Tristan seemed…uncomfortable to say the very least. He became anxious and unsettled, running a hand through his new quills to calm himself. It was obvious that the answer to Sonic's question deeply disturbed him, and if Sonic didn't know any better, he would've thought Tristan was trembling just a tiny bit. Sonic was about to withdraw his question, but Tristan pulled himself together just in time.

"You see, there-there was—"

"There was a battle, and that's all there really is to it," a voice said from across the room.

There she was, Sarah, slowly lifting herself up to a sitting position on the bed.

"Sarah!" Tristan quickly paced over to help her. She put a hand out in defiance.

"I'm fine."

Tristan retreated a bit from the bed as Sarah sat up straight and tall.

"What happened? The last thing I remember was falling after you transformed me."

"You fell back onto the controls, sending us into the planet. We crashed, and Sonic here found us and brought us to his house to help you."

"The transformation must've used up most of the energy in my body, which means I am weakening faster than I thought," Sarah mumbled the last half of her sentence and turned to Sonic.

"Sonic, was it? I thank you for your kindness in trying to help me."

"Anytime! That's what I'm all about!"

Sarah looked across the room at the pink hedgehog and two-tailed fox.

"I don't think I caught your names."

Tails spoke first, "My name is Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails."

"And I'm Amy! Amy Rose."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you both. But pleasantries aside," Sarah said, moving the covers off and getting out of the bed, "we have a mission to accomplish. I'm assuming you left any and all trackers on the ship?"

"I mean, you weren't conscious, and the ship was kind of on fire—"

"Which means we need to get over there now and salvage what we can. So thank you all for your kindness but now we take our leave," Sarah announced, practically dragging Tristan out of the room with her.

"Wait! Don't you want our help?"

This stopped Sarah in her tracks. She turned around.

"What?"

"Don't you want us to help you?" Sonic repeated.

Both she and Tristan stared at him in a surprised awe. Rarely did anyone on any planet ever offer to help them after they discovered they were 'other-worldly'. Sarah shook the amazement off and replied to him.

"Thank you for the offer, but I can't ask you to do that."

"We don't mind! Right, guys?"

Tails and Amy shook their heads.

"Besides, don't you at least need a guide or something? Or a mechanic? You're looking for crystal shard things, right? We know a certain knuckle-headed treasure hunter who could help you!"

Sarah and Tristan shot each other a look.

"Could you give us a moment, please?"

Sonic nodded kindly. The pair pivoted away, with Tristan unfurling one of his wings to keep their conversation a secret. Tails and Amy, who had been reeling trying to keep up with everything, simply turned to each other and shrugged. Sarah and Tristan eventually turned back around.

"Very well, then. We will accept your offer, but we must hurry. I fear all of our belongings may be burned to a crisp."

The group agreed and headed for the door.

"Wait! One more thing before we go!" Tails said.

"What is it?"

"The thing on your chest. What does it mean?"

"It's two letters, A and G, it's the insignia that all warriors on Ciellus wear. It stands for 'Aura Guardian'.

XXX

Helicopters hovered above, pouring down water on the remnants of the fire. A semi-circle of black vans and men in uniforms surround the fire's source.

"What do you think it is?" one of the soldiers said.

"It's definitely a ship of some kind, but I've never seen anything like this before," another soldier replied.

"What about you, hedgehog?" he said, rudely butting the back of his gun into the hedgehog's black fur.

Shadow, who had been silently observing the ship for any clues, shot the G.U.N. trooper a dirty look and stepped forward. He bent down and picked up a burnt piece of debris.

"Well, it's not one of Black Doom's, that's for sure."

"Then where's it from?"

Shadow dropped the debris and stood up.

"I don't know…"

He looked up at the charred, crumbling ship towering over him.

 _ **To be continued…**_


	3. Welcome to Mobius

Author's Note: I KNOW, I KNOW. It's been a while and I'm sorry. But at least it's out now, right? Anyways, I hope you all had an awesome, candy-filled Halloween! I'm going to start using the journal function on my Quotev account (I go by the same username as on here) to keep you readers up-to-date on the progress of the story (and a warning, the next one isn't going to be coming out for some time). As for this particular chapter, the ending is a bit poorly written because I rushed it for the sake of getting it out in a decent amount of time. But regardless, I hope you enjoy it!

The group traveled quickly toward the site of the crashed spaceship, some flying high in the sky, others running on the ground. Sonic came to a screeching halt several feet in front of the crash area. Tristan, catching this out of the corner of his eye, descended to join him.

"This is the clearing where we met. I figured it's probably near where your ship crashed, so I thought we'd wait up for the slowpokes," Sonic said cheekily, stretching his limbs out a bit. Tristan nodded and with a few flaps of his wings landed safely on the ground. He kindly placed Sarah, who he had carried there, on the ground. She dusted herself off.

"Which way is the ship? I want to go up ahead to see what's left," she asked Tristan.

"It's a few yards that way," he said, pointing in its direction.

Sarah followed his hand and disappeared into the forest. An awkward silence fell over the clearing.

"I…I'm sorry for the way acted here."

Sonic's ear twitched as Tristan found the words to his apology.

"I'm not normally like that…i—it's just…Sarah was…I mean…. She's my only friend way out here, and I need to protect her."

Sonic smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I know how important friends can be. I know if I ever lost a friend, I would—" Sonic was cut short by Amy and Tails' arrival.

"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed, glomping him as soon as she saw him. She looked up at him with a big smile and twinkling eyes while hugging tightly onto his chest. He could only chuckle awkwardly in response. Tails landed soon after.

"Where's the ship?" he asked.

"It's a little ways that way. Sarah is already there, so let's hurry and catch up."

"Actually," Sarah said, coming out of the bushes, "we have a problem."

XXX

"Who are all these people?" Tristan whispered, keeping his voice low as to not bring attention to himself.

The group had hidden themselves in the underbrush near the posted soldiers protecting the spaceship.

"G.U.N. They're our military," Tails said.

"Of course they are," Sarah muttered unenthusiastically.

"It's nothing we haven't taken on before," Tristan said, grinning and cracking his knuckles.

"We're not attacking anyone!"

"Why not?"

"I have a feeling we're going to find what we're looking for here, and I want to make as few enemies as possible on this planet. Besides, we have…guests," Sarah said, putting a thumb back to Sonic, Amy, and Tails.

"So what are we going to do? Lie and sneak our way in?"

"No! We want them to trust us, not arrest us! Besides, what would we tell them? That we're from a higher organization? They're the government! I say we tell them who we are."

"Sarah, that's insane!"

"I know it is, but that seems to be our only option right now. I don't want to make that big of a scene so…power down."

Tristan growled quietly as the bright blue uniform he had been wearing became transparent, and was sucked into a light in his chest, leaving him with white gloves, blue shoes, and bare, dirty blonde fur. Sarah turned to the trio behind them.

"Thank you for your help, but I don't want to get any of you in trouble, so we'll take it from here."

"Actually," Sonic chimed in, spotting the two familiar faces he hoped to find in this mess of G.U.N. soldiers, "you may need us more than you think."

Shadow stood with his arms crossed beneath the destroyed spacecraft. His ear twitched when he heard gravel being stepped on close to him. He turned to see Rouge walking toward him.

"Hiya."

"Morning."

"So," Rouge said, pivoting to face the ship, "what have we got here? Word down the grapevine says this steaming pile of metal is 'out of this world'."

"It's a spaceship for sure. We've still got men inside checking to make sure everything's sound enough for us to go in and inspect thoroughly, but I can tell for a fact it's not from the Black Arms."

"You're probably right, but if so, where'd it come from?"

Shadow opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a commotion behind him. The pair looked at each other and headed toward the line of sentries. They pushed past soldiers with their guns drawn and trained on something on the edge of the restricted zone.

"What's going on he— Sonic?"

Sonic, with his arms raised in a sign of surrender, turned to Shadow and gave him his signature grin.

"Hey Shadow!"

Not an ounce of fear in his voice. Shadow returned his smile with a scowl and looked to the armed and ready men.

"Stand down," he commanded, waving his arm to tell the soldiers to relax their weapons. He then proceeded to turn around and march right up to Sonic, with Rouge in tow.

"What are you doing here?" he said, poking Sonic in the chest.

"What's it to you?" Amy chimed in, a frivolous attempt to protect her 'boyfriend'.

"Back off, Rose!" Shadow growled in restraint, "This is the fourth time he's shown up at a G.U.N. site unauthorized, and every time he appears I tell him to get lost. So I ask you again, Sonic, why are you here?"

It was then when Rouge noticed Sarah and Tristan.

"Who are these two?" she asked, her question interrupting the intense stand-off between the two hedgehogs.

"My name is Sarah, and this is Tristan. I apologize for Sonic's being here, he was only escorting us here to retrieve some things from our ship."

"Your ship?" Shadow repeated, a bit more loudly than he wanted to.

Upon hearing this, all the nearby soldiers once again raised their weapons, this time aimed on either Sarah or Tristan. Both of them tensed, but Sarah quickly calmed herself down. She put her arm out in front of Tristan to keep him from lashing out.

"We come in peace! We simply need some technology to see if our mission can be completed here."

"Your mission?"

As Sarah began to explain, Shadow leaned back to Rouge and whispered something in her ear, after which she nodded and walked away. Shadow put out his hand as a sign for Sarah to halt.

"We accept your peace offering, but we're going to have to interrogate you to better understand you."

Tristan scoffed at the obvious untrusting nature of the situation. Sarah jutted him in the ribs with her elbow.

"Very well then," Sarah said, as Rouge appeared with multiple other soldiers, among them was a uniformed man with two differently colored eyes and quite a few medals on his chest, showing high-rank.

"Now, if you would please follow us, we have much to discuss," the uniformed man said, pointing to a group of tents on the other side of the site.

"As for the rest of you," Shadow said, addressing the sentry soldiers who still had their guns aimed at the group of intruders, "keep an eye on the other three. Especially him. You can keep your safeties on, but make sure they don't get into any trouble."

As Tristan was lead past Shadow, something strange happened between them. It was like an inner power surge, time seemed to slow down as they crossed paths. Tristan was quickly disturbed by this. He caught up to Sarah and whispered in her ear.

"Did you feel that?!"

"I felt a little something. Why?"

Tristan looked behind him.

Shadow, on the other hand, became still and stared at the ground. He took a mental self-inventory on himself to see what had happened. Eventually, he shook his head and blamed his spike in energy on his anger toward Sonic, and trailed the clump of people headed to the interrogation area.

After what seemed like hours of questions, Sarah and Tristan were released from their interrogation rooms. Tristan immediately ran up and hugged Sarah upon seeing her, which she accepted happily.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"Good."

They watched Shadow walk out of the tents and up to the high-ranking officer.

"From what we observed, Commander, they seem to show no threat to us. Their mission seems harmless enough," he said, handing a clipboard to the man, "I'll write up a full report when I get to my office. The only thing I would worry about is the boy's power, but he doesn't seem hostile and the girl can keep him under control."

The Commander nodded silently as he looked over Shadow's notes.

"It says here they're looking for the girl's… 'power cell'?"

"Yes, but she's harmless without it."

"Very well then," he said. He waved hand and ushered men to bring Sarah and Tristan over.

"Sarah and Tristan, allow me to formally introduce myself. I am the Commander of G.U.N., the Guardian Unit of Nations. We are tasked with protecting this world from…well…this."

Sarah quickly stood her ground.

"I assure you, Commander, we mean no harm."

"I'm sure you don't. But, in order for the people of this planet to trust you, Agent Shadow here is going to monitor you for your first week here."

"WHAT?!" all three of them exclaimed.

"Commander!" Shadow argued, "There are so many other things I could be doing, more productive things! You can't leave me to baby sit the space twins!"

Sarah and Tristan frowned.

"Now, Shadow, think about it," the Commander said, bringing Shadow aside, "if you do this, for just one week, imagine all the respect you could earn! You could stop being the dreaded and feared 'Ultimate Lifeform', and become the kind and well-respected hero you should be seen as."

'You mean how you want to be seen as,' Shadow thought. He scowled. He knew what the Commander was doing. Trying to manipulate him into doing his dirty work. The Commander was no stranger to the art of manipulation. How else could he have single-handedly lead G.U.N. against him and the Black Arms? He supposed that was why he was doing it in the first place. You see, the Commander was still in some hot water about the actions he took during the Black Arms' invasion of Mobius and was constantly trying to get back up on his superiors' good side. So, when he inevitably claimed credit for "neutralizing" the new alien "threat", he was definitely going to look good in their eyes. Because of this, Shadow knew he wasn't getting out of this situation no matter how hard he begged.

"So, what do you say?" the Commander said, putting his hand out, "Just for a week?"

Shadow begrudgingly glanced at his hand for a bit, but sighed and gave him a nice firm handshake.

The Commander smiled almost wickedly.

"As you wish."

They both turned to Sarah and Tristan.

"Commander, please—" But Sarah's pleading was pointless.

"It's just for a week, just enough to see if we can trust you enough to be around the public. And it would be a shame if you had to be detained for posing a threat to us, wouldn't it?"

Sarah reluctantly shrunk into herself, knowing there was no way to win.

"Very good. Agent Shadow, escort these two to their ship so that they can finally get on with their mission."

Shadow gestured toward the ship, Sarah and Tristan following frustratedly.

"We need Sonic and the others," Sarah mentioned.

Shadow nodded and motioned the guards on the edge to bring them over. However, when the guards arrived, Tails was the only one present.

"Where's—"

"Sonic got bored and went for a run. He said he'd catch up with us later," Tails said, answering Tristan's question.

"And Amy?"

"Chased after him."

Tristan chuckled as they walked into the looming shadow of the destroyed spaceship. Shadow flagged down a man who came out of one of its gaping holes.

"Is it safe?" he asked

The man nodded.

The pack continued up to the ship and entered its hull. They navigated through live electrical wires, protrusive metal fragments, and other debris until they arrived at what was probably a hallway at some point.

"Alright, which way do we go?" Shadow asked.

Sarah quickly communicated with Tristan with her eyes, as he quickly caught on with the plan.

"You and I are going to go this way," Tristan said, "There's a lot of equipment that I need help carrying."

"And you're welcome to come with me, Tails," Sarah offered. Tails excitedly nodded yes, and the pairs went off in their separate directions.

"I'm sorry I had to drag you into this," Sarah apologized, as she and Tails continued to walk down the seemingly never-ending hallway.

"Aw, don't worry about it! Compared to the trouble Sonic has gotten me into before, this is nothing!" Tails replied warm-heartedly.

Sarah smiled and looked ahead.

"We're here."

They entered a rather large area that Tails could only assume was once the bridge. Even still, some of the foreign technology was kept in decent shape, making Tails extremely curious.

"It looked better when it was intact," Sarah said, noting the fox's interest, "Now then…"

Sarah walked toward a small control panel that stuck up from the ground in the middle of the room. After pressing a few buttons, a small compartment opened up on the panel, near her knee. Tails watched as Sarah knelt down and reached in, carefully pulling out a small metal box of some kind.

"What is that?"

"I'll tell you later. I don't think it'd be safe if I told you here."

Tails, while perplexed by this statement, agreed and suggested that they meet back up with Shadow and Tristan. However, this happened before they could agree on it.

"Sarah!" Tristan yelled down the corridor, the unexpected noise making her jump.

"What's wrong?"

Tristan walked into the room with Shadow in tow before continuing.

"All of our trackers out. Not one of them works."

"What?!" Sarah said, checking a few of the ones Tristan carried.

"These were the only ones I could find that look like they could be repaired, but I couldn't find your toolbox…"

Sarah sighed and ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

"I—I have tools," Tails spoke up. "They may not be the right tools for the job, but with all the stuff in my workshop, I should be able to figure it out."

Sarah and Tristan looked at each other for a bit. Finally, Sarah answered him.

"Anything's worth a shot at this point. Let's do it."

 _ **To be continued…**_


	4. A Long Way to Go

Author's Note: To celebrate my last day of school/first day of summer (since it's midnight where I am while I'm posting this), I finished the first arc of this story. I worked extremely hard on it and it is one of the longest things I've ever written (on Pages, it totals to almost 5 pages without double spacing!). So I hope you all like it! (Please read the author's note at the end for a special announcement!)

Tails wiped his forehead with a rag and put his screwdriver down on the table.

"Phew! Alright, they're all fixed!" Tails called to the others who had been dawdling around in his workshop while he worked. Shadow, Sarah, and Tristan walked over to Tails's bench to find a row of mint-condition trackers.

"They're...as good as new!" Sarah said excitedly as she picked one up and examined it.

"Better than new, actually," Tails said proudly, "Once I figured out how to fix them, I installed an upgrade that increased the range of the radar. Now it'll pick up energy signals from miles away!"

"That's amazing! Thank you, Tails," Sarah said cheerfully, giving him a warm hug and a smile.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's test it out!" Tristan said anxiously, already holding the box that Sarah and Tails had retrieved from the ship.

"What is that?" Shadow questioned suspiciously.

"As I'm sure you were informed, our purpose for coming here is to retrieve the pieces of Sarah's power cell, and while I carry a few for safe keeping, we mainly use them in trackers so we have a base for the signal," Tristan said, opening the box to reveal the last few shards of the power cell, glowing dimly in a strange, heartbeat-like pattern. Suddenly, Shadow found himself getting weak and slowly began to step back. Sarah quickly took note of this.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked.

Shadow lurched to the right, and Tails instinctively leaped out to catch him.

"Tristan, close the box!" Sarah shouted, reaching for the box and snapping it shut. There was a brief but rigid silence as Shadow's vision steadied.

"What happened?" he asked, finding the strength to talk (and to rudely push Tails off of him).

"I don't know. You seemed to have a very violent reaction to the shards," Sarah said, slowly releasing her grip on the box and letting Tristan take back control of it.

"But, why?" Tails asked.

A brief silence set in.

"I'm not sure why. But if he's having a reaction to the power cells, it could explain that weird thing that happened between us when we first met," Tristan spoke up.

"Well, it doesn't matter what it is. Right now, we need to find out if you two should even be here," Shadow said, standing up and brushing himself off, as though nothing had happened.

Sarah and Tristan looked at each other skeptically.

"He has a point," Tails started softly, "Your mission takes priority right now, and, if you're really worried about it, I can look into it later."

Tails smiled as he handed a tracker to the pair. Sarah nodded, and took the tracker. Tristan opened the box, making sure to cover it with his wing to protect Shadow, and taking out a single shard, quickly inputting it into the tracker. A silent tension grabbed the room as the machine slowly came back to life; the few minutes it took for it to reboot seemed agonizing long. Soft pinging filled the workshop, scanning as far as it could to find any trace of homeworld energy. And then…silence. The group held their breath.

 _Energy signatures detected._

 _Multiple locations found._

 _Coordinates incoming._

A smile slowly crept onto Sarah's face. Tristan exclaimed happily and turned to Sarah. They threw their arms around each other and laughed blissfully. Tails exhaled, a grin crossing his muzzle. Shadow, finding himself surprisingly tense, uncrossed his arms and let them fall to his sides.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Shadow said, "Let's get moving!"

"Right! Tails, what's the closest signature to our location?" Sarah asked.

"It looks like…there's one coming from where a small patch of unused farmland."

"Then let's get over there right away!"

"Wait, Sarah!" Tristan exclaimed, grabbing her wrist to stop her giddy skip toward the door.

He quickly grabbed a duffel bag from under a table.

"I found some of your battle gear while we were searching for trackers on the ship. Most of it was in pretty bad shape, but I did find—"

"My shield surfer!"

Sarah snatched a curved, blue piece of metal out of the bag. The 'shield surfer' was a large, circular—well, shield. She carefully inspected it, smoothing her hand over it to check for dents or scratches.

"It's seems to be in pretty good shape," she mumbled to herself.

"Well, there's only one way to find out right?"

XXX

A thin form zoomed through the forest, leaving quaking trees in its wake. Another blue form higher in the sky followed. The sounds of a plane trail them. The sensation of the wind slightly burning the skin sent chills down her spine.

Sarah, Tristan, Tails, and Shadow all made their way to the field where they hoped to find a shard of Sarah's power cell. Tails piloted his X-Tornado high in the cloud layer with Shadow kneeling on the wing. Tristan flew a little below them using his bright blue wings, and Sarah zoomed through the forest below. She was standing in the concave of the shield surfer, which doubled as both shield and hoverboard. With all of the space exploration she and Tristan had done, Sarah had forgotten the joy of using it. It was like flying. Almost.

The tracker on Sarah's hip began to vibrate, prompting her to remove it from the belt loop on her black battle suit. The little white blip was getting dangerously close. Sarah looked up and could see where the trees ended and the field began. She took this as her cue to signal Tristan, who flew up and knocked on the window of the X-Tornado.

Sarah quickly began to slow down as soon as she entered the flat grassland. Her blurred surroundings became clear and she looked around for any trace of the power cell. And she saw it. A single shard, sticking out of the earth just a few yards ahead. She was ecstatic. She jumped off her hoverboard and stepped on one of the sides to flip it up to her. She waved her hands in the air to get the attention of Tristan and Tails, who quickly made their descents. She grinned at Tristan, who returned a smile before turning back and observing the X-Tornado's landing. Sarah turned around to see the shard again and, in her excitement, found herself running towards it. Her face lit up as she got closer. She could sense the power it still radiated. She reached out her hand to grab it and—

Tristan saw it at the last moment.

"Sarah! Wait—!"

But it was too late.

A wave of energy sent Sarah flying back to the rest of the group. She quickly sat up and gasped at what was happening in front of her.

The shard was floating in the air, and the ground below began to glow and crack. Large clumps of dirt and grass shot up and began to take form around it. First a hand, then arms, head, torso and legs. The creature's look seemed to resemble that of a gorilla. A 20-foot tall, dirt compacted gorilla. Tufts of grass covered its shoulders and head, and its hollow eyes glowed purple from the power shard within.

"What is that?!" Sarah exclaimed.

"There's still energy left in the shard! It must've used some of it to protect itself!" Tristan shouted back.

"But it's my power cell! Why would it need to protect itself against me?"

"You have my energy flowing in you! It must recognize you as a part of me!"

Sarah gave him a worried look.

The energy monster beat its chest and roared. It raised its fists in the air and brought them down where the group was in front of Tails' plane, just barely giving Tristan, Sarah, and Shadow enough time to jump out of the way.

"What's our plan of attack?" Shadow yelled from behind Sarah and Tristan.

"We need to find a weak point! All that dirt is just armor! Once we get to the shard, this battle is over!" Sarah said, standing up and brushing herself off. While the monster had caught her off-guard, Sarah had now finally found where the shards of her power cell are and nothing was going to stop her from getting them. The creature was simply another obstacle in her way.

Shadow complied with the orders immediately, and jumped up to begin his assault. Tristan closed his eyes and surrounded himself with his blue energy. His silhouette was the only thing you could of him as the energy took shape on his body, leaving him with his energy suit with the silver "AG" on his chest. He opened his wings, flew up, and joined Shadow on the offense.

Sarah ran over to the X-Tornado and called out for Tails.

"Tails! Are you all right in there?"

"I'm fine! I was just testing the weapons system. I wasn't really expecting a battle!"

"We're trying to find a weak point on that creature and I think there's one on its head. Can you get me up there?"

"I can do you one better. Hop on!"

Sarah climbed up the wing of the plane and situated herself near the pod of seats, behind the pod where Tails sat. He took off, flying high up and then straight at the monster.

"X-Tornado transform! Battle armor mode!"

Two of the four jets on the plane brought themselves face forward and out to the sides. The fire of the engines was replaced by a fist on each jet, giving the plane a fighting stance as it collided with the monster. It grabbed the wrists of the simian creature to keep it in place.

"Now, Sarah! This is your chance!" Tails shouted.

Sarah nodded and stood up. She put her hand out to the side, summoning a black sword made from the same material as her battle suit. She ran up the body of the plane and jumped off the nose. She let out a primal scream as she shoved her sword in-between the eyes of the great dirt beast.

It roared loudly and thrashed its head around wildly in response, flinging Sarah down to the ground with a painful landing. The erratic movements had let the creature escape Tails' grasp and gave it the opportunity to bring its fist down onto Sarah.

"SARAH!" Tristan yelled helplessly from world seemed to slow down as the monster lifted its hand. Had he just let his best friend be killed? Was there even going to be anything recognizable of her left? But, when it was moved, the only thing there was the imprint left by the monster's hand. No remains, not anything else. Tristan, in confusion, looked around his immediate area and realized Shadow was no longer by his side. To his relief, he saw a flash of light near the forest where both Shadow and Sarah appeared, out of harm's way.

Sarah opened her eyes to find herself looking up at Shadow the Hedgehog.

"Stay here," was all he said before teleporting away.

She could see the battle going on in the distance, the battle for her power cell. She refused to let anyone fight her battles, and made a vain attempt to stand up. She was definitely injured. She was in no condition to be fighting, but there had to be something she could do. Sarah focused her attention to the fight once again.

"He needs…help," she mumbled, finding the energy to get up and trudge towards her troubled friend.

Shadow appeared in a flash of light in the air next to Tristan, floating next to him using his jet skates.

"Sarah made a pretty big hole right between right between that thing's eyes," Tristan said, pointing out the large gap in the monster's hardened skull that bridged its two eyes.

"If we can make it a little bigger, one of us might be able to reach in and get the shard, but we're going to need to work togeth—"

Shadow had already warped in front of the monstrosity during his sentence.

"—er."

Tristan quickly flew over to begin the assault. Tails kept the behemoth at bay while the two heroes charged their attacks.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow shouted, swinging his hand down and sending his golden energy darts at the creature.

Tristan's fists radiated with his blue energy, and when he put them together, fired a large beam of energy right at the giant's head. The monster bellowed. It raised its free hand, and with the snap of its wrist, sent Shadow and Tristan crashing to the ground.

"HEY! Pay attention to me!" Tails yelled, punching the colossus in the face with the arms on his plane. However, the impact nearly shattered the fist, leaving his right flank completely defenseless. Tails' eyes widened as the monster, recovering from the reel of the punch, once again brought back its hand to punch right right where he was sitting. He flinched in apprehension of the attack. But it never came.

Out of the blue, a blue blur slammed into jowl of the primate-like creature, knocking it over onto its side. He skids to a stop where Shadow and Tristan slowly collected themselves.

"Sonic?"

The great hero turned his head, a playful grin on his face, and gave a thumbs-up.

"Everyone okay over here?" he asked, previously taking note of Sarah helping Tails out of the plane and getting him out of harm's way.

"Yeah, I think we're good. Thanks," Tristan said, fluttering his wings to help him stand up. Shadow grunted in reply, brushing himself off as he rose.

The monster picked itself up and rubbed its face before roaring angrily at the group.

"So, do we have a plan or are we improvising?" Sonic asked, stretching out his limbs in preparation.

"There's a weak point right between that thing's eyes. We'll try to make a bigger dent in it, and you can use your spin dash to get through to its power source," Shadow explained.

"The shard. Got it. Let's roll!" Sonic replied excitedly, running full speed at the creature. Shadow rolled his eyes, jumped, and used his jet shoes to hover in the air. Tristan opened his wings and followed.

Tristan's hand glowed with his energy once again, but this time he swiped his hand down and created a tangible sonic boom as Shadow sent out another barrage of Chaos Spears. Before the monster could even react, Sonic was spinning right into its head. Sparks flew as Sonic spun faster and faster. Suddenly, the face broke, sending him through its head and out the back of the skull. The lights in its eyes went out, and the creature finally collapsed into heaps of rock and soil. Sarah and Tails joined Tristan and Shadow as they calmly landed near Sonic.

"Did you get it?"

Sonic, whose back was to the group, put his hand out to the side and unfurled his fist, revealing a single, glowing, power cell shard. Sarah and Tristan breathed a sigh of relief. Sonic walked over and kindly handed the shard to Sarah, who cupped it between her hands.

"If we keep it covered, it shouldn't be able to form anything."

She looked up.

"Thank you, Sonic."

"Hey, no sweat!" he replied cheerily, "It's what I do."

Sonic leaned his head to the side to get Tails' attention.

"Hey Tails! Let's see what we can do about the X-Tornado so we can get it back home."

Tails happily nodded, flying over the group to catch up with him on the walk there. Shadow uncrossed his arms and began to follow them, only to be stopped by the calling of his name.

"Oh, and Shadow? Thank you…for saving me."

He nodded curtly before continuing on his way.

"So, we finally found it. The planet that's been hiding all the shards of the power cell. Shouldn't we be celebrating?" Tristan said, adopting a hushed tone for privacy's sake.

"Just because we found one shard on this planet doesn't mean they're all here. They could've spread out to other planets. Even if they are all on this planet, there's a lot of work ahead of us."

Sarah looked at the pinks and oranges of the sunset over the damaged plane.

"We've got a long way to go."

 ** _To be continued…_**

Author's Note: I have a couple of arcs ready for the next part of this story, and while they will eventually be done in the future, I thought I'd let you, my readers, have a say! So if you're interested in what will happen next in the story, go ahead and vote on the new poll on my profile called "What Sonic and the Aura Guardians story-arc would you like to see next?" I'll probably leave the poll open for a week from the day this was posted. I'm interested in what you guys have to say. Thanks for reading and have an awesome day!


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